The sun also rises …

There is a post I wrote almost a year ago that I often refer to. It is one of the first posts I wrote as I started creating my “blogging voice”. This small, on the surface possibly silly, post may be one of the most profound things that I have ever written. It is even one of the core points of my very belief system, the glue that holds it all together. That is why I often refer back to it, because the idea keeps popping up.

Ironically, as strong as this idea has become for me, I keep forgetting it.

Deep thinkers; the type of people who seek constantly to improve themselves often are seen as seeking “enlightenment”. And many view enlightenment as the province of special training, or special people. That one is maybe “chosen” for wisdom, or had to go through hellish training to find it. But in my view, enlightenment is simply a choice. Wisdom does take experience yes, but true enlightenment comes from simply opening one’s senses to what is right before us and just … paying attention.

In this day and age we have numerous examples of enlightened souls. Not only the great philosophers of ages past, often quoted even today, but we have numerous movers and shakers in today’s world; numerous “change agents” that awe people with their seeming wisdom. If one looks closely at their words, it becomes clear very quickly that they are all really saying basically the same thing, though with different words maybe. The reality is some of the most “enlightened” souls I have encountered are simply folk who just sat up one day and said “Oh yeah!”.

In the Key to Finding I discussed how sometimes the easiest way to find something we’re looking for is to look for something else. That in reality we often are looking for the wrong thing. But there is one part of this that I forgot to mention. As I recently Tweeted/Status Updated:

Don’t keep your vision locked on the horizon because you risk missing what is at your feet. It is easy to hurt yourself that way!

I was being somewhat facetious, but the truth of that statement was handed to me just last week in an “Oh Yeah!” moment. Sometimes we are so busy looking for whatever we seek that we don’t see it right there before our eyes.

Last week I was viscerally reminded that in the last few years I have been working so hard to figure out how to “fix” my life that I totally forgot to live it.

I have academically understood this for some time now. But I managed to do that thing that active thinkers are often so good at. I managed to weave a spell of self-justification and self-delusion that prevented the thought from taking hold where it belonged. In the center of my being.

But a conversation with the right person, combined with a healthy dose of perspective, pierced my very soul, and boy did it hurt! The spiritual equivalent of the pins and needles one feels when a body part has gone numb for whatever reason and the blood is returning. If you have ever felt that you know how much it hurts initially but you are also saying “Thank you sir may I have another!” and glad as hell that you feel your limb again.

After a bit of necessary pain, I feel my soul again.

As of this moment I am making a Lifetime Vow. Now I usually do not believe in lifetime commitments simply because things change. Even when we don’t always want them to. But this one I can uphold because it is not just a commitment FOR life, it is in fact a commitment TO life. I am so serious about this that I am thinking of putting effort into an actual document for me to sign and put in a frame. To even post it as a separate page on this blog. For fully and wholeheartedly announcing it to the universe is the first step to making it happen. Others are welcome to make this commitment with me, but even if no one ever actually reads this post I am still making this vow.

A LIFETIME COMMITMENT. A COMMITMENT TO LIFE.

I VOW:

  • To actually live my life!
  • To do the best I can!
  • To make mistakes; to learn from my mistakes; to forgive myself for my mistakes!
  • To stop wishing and start doing!
  • To remember that nothing is impossible! The “impossible” just takes a little longer!
  • To be an example!
  • To be true to myself!
  • To laugh when I should laugh, to cry and when I should cry, and then to laugh again!
  • For my last words to be “I lived! And I lived well!” with a smile and sigh of bliss!
  • To pay attention! To CHOOSE enlightenment!

I VOW TO EMBRACE THE LIFE I AM LIVING EVEN AS I CREATE THE LIFE THAT I WANT!

Once again I ask, anyone care to join me?